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An Indiana couple spent 20 years converting a gym into a home.
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The building has two different halves: one part looks like a house and the other half is still a gym.
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Now they are marketing it for $299,000.
This one’s for you, basketball fans: A high school gymnasium in Wilkinson, Indiana, retails for $299,000.
Formerly part of Eastern Hancock High School, the gymnasium sits on a 3.6-acre site on the outskirts of town and comes with half the size of the original basketball court, according to the mention.
The home’s owners are Jeff and Christi Broady, FC Tucker Company listing agent Roy Wilson told Insider. The Broadys did not respond to requests for comment.
This is the first time they’ve put the house up for sale since buying it for $85,000 in 2002. display records show.
Homes in Wilkinson, Indiana, have an average home price of $199,900, per realtor.com. There are five single-family homes for sale, with prices ranging from $175,000 to $299,000 — making the former high school gymnasium the most expensive listing in the area.
The building is now split into two distinct halves: one half still looks and feels like a gym, replete with bleachers and high ceilings. The other half, which is behind the mustard-colored wall in the photo below, looks and feels like a home, with segmented rooms and two levels.
Once the interior walls were built, the owners were able to create new living spaces, such as a kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms, Wilson said. They also added windows and doors leading to the other half of the building, where they preserved the original basketball hall.
The owners have been working on converting the gym’s interior since they bought the property 20 years ago.
There were two other school buildings that stood next to the gym, Wilson said, “The school buildings were built in 1922 but were demolished just a few years ago.”
The gym was built decades later, in 1950, Wilson said.
“I sold the gym 20 years ago to the people who are currently selling it, and they’ve been building the house in the gym ever since,” he said.
The owners have done most of the renovation themselves.
“They did the work themselves — it’s under construction,” Wilson said. The couple has been working on the house for two decades, but there are some parts of the property that have not been completed.
“The wood finish in some places is unfinished, but it’s very livable,” Wilson said.
Most of the gym’s original maple floors can be found throughout the house, and the kitchen floor still has basketball court lines.
The owners are not former students of the school, but Wilson is.
“If you’re in the kitchen, you can stand by the foul line where I used to stand, and the basketball goal would be right over the counter if it were still there,” Wilson said.
There is an pending bid for the home of a former student, Wilson added, “He hasn’t been to that building, but he graduated from that same school system.”
There are four bedrooms in the house, including a master bedroom that overlooks the original gym.
The property used to be for commercial use, but is now a residential area, Wilson said: “Before the current owners bought it, it was a hardware store. And they kept the gym design too — they just put the planks on the basketball floor. “
The owners are selling the property because they are tired of working on the house, Wilson said.
“They are tired and their son is moving from the area to Florida and they are following him,” he said.
Wilson said he had received four offers so far. “Not unusual in this market,” he said. “There have been over 20 performances about it.”
Wilson attributes the buzz around the property in part to the strong emotional attachment of the local community.
The house is approx 40 minutes from Indianapolis. “It’s a basketball crazy state,” Wilson said. “There’s not much to do in Indiana in the winter, so people usually gathered around basketball.”
“The coolest thing is that more than half of the gym floor is still a gym — the original floor, the original bleachers, the original basketball goal,” Wilson added. “I graduated from that gym in 1969. I could tell you where I was.”
However, there’s one thing every potential buyer should know: “It still smells like a gym,” Wilson said.
Read the original article Insider